Sweet Potato Hummus

Aaron and I are huge fans of sweet potatoes. We eat them in all forms: stews, soups, baked, and in now in hummus!

I found this recipe on My New Roots and fell in love with it. It is especially delicious with crackers and veggied , but I use it as a sandwich filling and top it with spinach, sprouts, and/or avocado. 

In case you weren't aware, sweet potatoes are packed with nutrients. In fact, I've seen it on a list of the best foods for pregnant women! I wish I still had the source, you'll just have to take my word for it.

Whether your pregnant or just trying to be healthy, this recipe is a must-try.

Here are some basic nutrient facts about this recipe and sweet potatoes in general:

• One medium sweet potato gives you over 400% of your daily recommended amount of vitamin A!
• That same sweet potato is also a great source of fiber, vitamin C, potassium, manganese,and vitamin B6.
• This particular recipe also has tons of fiber, protein, and folate from the garbanzo beans, as well as healthy monounsaturated fatty acids from the olive oil!

If that isn't enough, they can also be healing for your body. WHAT?! Yeah, I know. I recently learned about this on the New Roots Blog:

"I recently found out something really cool about sweet potatoes, and that is the amazing properties of their “storage proteins”. Storage proteins are unique nitrogen sources that exist in most dry beans and tubers, generated mainly during seed production. Soybeans have glycinins, potatoes have patatins, yams have dioscorins, and corn has zeins.

Sweet potatoes contain storage proteins called sporamins, and recent studies have shown their important healing benefits. It turns out that when a sweet potato plant is subjected to physical damage, sporamins are produced to help the plant heal! Their ability to do this is significantly related to their role as antioxidants, which help prevent oxidative damage to our body’s cells. When sweet potato is being digested inside our gastrointestinal tract, we may get some of their antioxidant benefits. [1] This means that the healing properties sweet potato plants exhibit on their own cells is passed on to us when we munch them. Talk about a good sharer."

Source

I REALLY recommend checking out the rest of the post, as well as her recipe for [baked] sweet potato fries.

Sweet Potato Hummus
Adapted from My New Roots

2 cups chickpeas
zest of 1 lemon, juice of ½ lemon (you can also use lime)
3 small sweet potatoes
1 tsp. ground cumin
pinch of cayenne pepper (optional)
2-3 pinches sea salt
3 Tbsp. olive oil
2 cloves garlic

1. Place sweet potatoes (with the skin on) in a baking dish in a 400 F oven and bake until very soft, about 45 minutes to 1 hour, depending on their size.
2. Let the sweet potatoes cool down so that you can easily remove their skins - they should just peel off. Place them in a food processor with the remaining ingredients and blend on high to mix. 
3. Serve with a drizzle of olive oil, sprinkle of cracked black pepper, and whatever herb you have on hand. Again, these are great with crackers, chips, or as the filling for a sandwich. 

Note: You can alter the sweet potato/bean ratio to fit your taste. This recipe is quite flexible so adjust the ingredients as needed.

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